Vernon Hills is moving forward with more than $200,000 in renovation work at Village Hall that will create a new meeting room for community groups and a space that can be used as a polling place.

Three options were shown to village trustees during a July 5 committee meeting and they selected the least expensive plan, which was scheduled for formal approval on July 18.

Building Commissioner Mike Atkinson said construction should start in December or January, and all work will continue through winter because the project does not involve changing the building's exterior.

The chosen construction plan renovates empty office space that was previously used by the engineering department and creates a new room that measures approximately 28 feet by 34 feet, according to a village memo. The existing conference room would stay in tact.

"It would work the same way as when the library was in our lower level," Atkinson said. "We would zone the secure area so the village hall could be completely locked and separated from the foyer area and the meeting space area. This would also allow use the use of existing washroom facilities so we wouldn't have to incur the cost of creating another set of facilities."

Approved groups would get numerical codes to punch into keypad entry devices at the Village Hall front door and the door connecting the new meeting rooms with the foyer, Atkinson said. No employees would need to be present, he said.

The estimated cost and contingency for that option was estimated at more than $212,000, the memo says. The other options involved a second large room with sinks and cabinets and would have required some employees to relocate. Those plans were estimated at nearly $450,000 and $641,000.

The two rooms are being created after the park district chose to move out of the neighboring Larry Laschen Community Center, which the village owns and has decided to eventually demolish.

The 2002 lease between the village and park district required the park district to provide some free space for community groups to meet, something that costs money at all other park district facilities, according to Jeff Fougerousse, the park district's executive director.

While trustees on July 5 discussed the space needed by local homeowners associations, Boy Scouts and a church that meets every weekend, Village Manager John Kalmar cautioned the trustees about going too big.

"We can build as much space as you want and retrofit as much space as you want, but the more you do you'll probably end up attracting people from outside of the community, also," Kalmar said.

Village trustees Cindy Hebda and Michael Marquardt said they didn't see the value in the two pricier options.

"I think it's appropriate to provide meeting space for those groups that are within the village because there's not a whole lot of choices as to where they can go, unfortunately," Hebda said. "So, I think we need to do something, but the least expensive one would be my (preference)."

Village Trustee James Schultz said about $60,000 in required HVAC upgrades are part of all three packages.

The Laschen Center also was used as a polling place, and Kalmar said the new room should be able to serve that purpose as well.

"It appears that this will work out better for (the county) from a visibility standpoint and an access standpoint, too," Kalmar said.

The village purchased the Laschen Center building — constructed in the late 1950s as part of the Tally Ho Country Club — in the late 1970s and converted it into the village hall, according to Kalmar.

Vernon Hills built a new village hall next door in 2001 and in 2002 began leasing the Laschen Center to the park district for $1 a year, Kalmar said.